Monolith/Backrooms re-exploration & Pressure Servicemen redesign
This year has been bumpy when it comes to PLP work. I’ve been very unsure about what I wanted to do for my project, with the original plan being to shift more towards writing for the first semester of school. During camp I actually managed to get a lot of development done for ideas for future projects that I wanted to work on, but in the end it was too difficult to change course midway through the term and I ended up sticking with 3D modelling.
Term 1
I had some trouble in term 1 when came to figuring out what I wanted to do for my project. I had recently been reminded of my favourite show which sparked some motivation in me, which lead to me going back to one of my first original projects when I started 3D modelling, the Monoliths
The characters of the Monoliths were inspired by a mod for the game Minecraft called Dimensional Doors. Monoliths are a type of entity in the mod that spawn in the dimension Limbo, an all black void full of these creepy black bricks with a single glowing red eye. This design has stuck with me for quite some time now, and was originally one of the first projects I worked on when I first got into 3D modelling in Blender. As a homage to my original work and since I was out of ideas I decided to visit the first concept I ever explored when it comes to 3D art, the famous internet myth The Backrooms.
Years back I originally wanted to create a short animation of one these creatures roaming around the vast empty rooms of The Backrooms, however I was not skilled enough to be able to do that. Since I was bored and lacked something to do I first started by recreating The Backrooms in Blender, creating a small area so that when I created the Monoliths I could get nice looking renders. The Backrooms also offered an opportunity for me to explore scene/environment design since I have only really ever modelled characters (besides the map from Pressure).
Later in the term I found the motivation to experiment with other designs for possible Monoliths and created one I call Uriel. The design was heavy inspired by many aspect of the show Neon Genesis Evangelion, the face inspired by the giant Lilith, the wings and spear inspired by the Mass Production Eva. I wanted to further develop the model and work on rigging it as I had a surge of inspiration to create an animated homage to the show, however I ended up running out of time and have since shifted my focus onto other projects.
Uriel is definitely a project I want to go back to at a later date. To pay tribute to Neon Genesis Evangelion I had originally planned on creating a spoof using the Monolith models and cut up clips from the show. This is still a project I have interest in and will come back to after my other current projects are finished.
Term 2
In term 2 I decided to shift my focus back onto the characters of my game Pressure by going back and redesigning the endoskeleton of the main antagonists (which would lead to them being redesigned as well). This would also double up as a test of skill and a way to track how much I have advanced when it came to 3D modelling, as the model I was remaking was created for my project all the way back in year 9.
In my usual fashion I started modelling from the arm. Normally I start by modelling the hands of characters, but I started with the arm as I wanted to experiment with the design of it. I was inspired by the animatronic endoskeletons present in the Five Nights at Freddy’s game series, specifically the character Endo 02. I love the design of the rungs on the arms and wanted to design the arms in a similar style, adding lots of detail on the arm then adding loops around to give it volume (plus wire mesh to make it all look seamless).
Designing the hands of the endoskeleton was the first major challenge that I faced. I was stuck on the design for quite some time, unsure of how I wanted the fingers to look. My first idea was to copy the style of arms, however this lead to too much geometry being present in the hands which would lead to poor optimization later.